Thursday, April 19, 2012

04/19/2012
Malacaang is easing out Augusto Gus Lagman as Commission on Elections
(Comelec) commissioner as Noynoy is not likely to appoint him in the
interim, with Congress still in recess.

But I dont buy Lagmans
line that he is being canned by Noynoy to please Senate President Juan
Ponce Enrile and help secure a guilty verdict for Chief Justice Renato
Corona. Thats probably the Palace excuse to Lagman.

At this point
in Enriles life, all he is thinking of is to do right by the law and the
country, just as he thought right and did right by resigning from the
Marcos government in 1986 even before the Edsa revolt started. He did
it for country and was willing to die for it..... MORE

The newly-established environmental party Kalikasan Party-list
criticized the Benigno Aquino III administration for allegedly
railroading the approval of coal power plant deals in Mindanao. The
group said the administration continues to pursue dirty coal power and
dangerous nuclear power plant projects despite strong opposition from
the public and the popular call to pursue clean alternatives.

“It’s obvious that Aquino is coddling private energy corporations,
particularly those using dirty fuels. His midnight approval of the
contracts to operate of three coal-fired power plants proves this. The
Philippines already has 11 coal-fired power plants operating, two of
which were inaugurated under Aquino’s watch. This is not the first time
that one of Aquino’s pet projects presents serious environmental
problems,” said Kalikasan Party-list spokesman Leon Dulce.

Dulce explained that scientific estimates put the average annual
pollutive output of these three power projects at 11,100,000 tons of
carbon dioxide, 30,000 tons of sulfur dioxide, 2,160 tons of carbon
monoxide, and countless other toxic chemical compounds and heavy metals..... MORE

The battle over control of the internet is not just about the freedom
of speech, but our global future. It is the choice between a Big
Brother and democracy unseen before, insists Rick Falkvinge, the founder
of the Swedish Pirate Party.

­RT:In the future, do you see an internet that is free, open and equal or do you see dark clouds ahead?

Rickard Falkvinge: We’re
at a crossroads right now. This technology can be used to create such a
dystopic Big Brother society that if you’d had written a book about it
in 1950s-80s, it would have been discarded as being unrealistic. We’re
at this dystopic stage seen in the 1950s where there were cameras in
people’s homes. The only thing missing from the scenario [is] we bought
them ourselves [personal computers] – that is the only thing that was
not foreseen..... MORE

A provocative installation in Sweden about female genital
circumcision has been labeled sexist and racist after the country’s
culture minister actively participated in the provocative
mock-mutilation show.
­Artist Makode Linde presented his mind-blowing “Painful Cake”
installation for World Art Day at Stockholm’s Moderna Muséet on April
15.

The cake was made in the caricatured form of a naked
torso of an African tribal woman with the live, make-up-covered head of
the Afro-European artist attached to it. Makode Linde was hiding his
body within the serving table..... MORE

By RONALYN V. OLEA Bulatlat.com
MANILA – The recent promotion of Major General Jorge Segovia, former
commander of the 2nd Infantry Division of the Philippine Army that
carried out the illegal arrest of 43 health workers in February 2010,
has outraged human rights groups.

The 43 health workers, popularly known as Morong 43,
were arrested in Morong, Rizal and slapped with charges of illegal
possession of firearms and explosives two years ago. They were tortured
especially during the first months of their imprisonment at Camp
Capinpin. They were jailed for nearly a year.

Segovia, commander of the 10th ID, is set to replace Lieutenant
General Arthur Tabaquero as Eastern Mindanao Command (Eastmincom) chief.
The new post promotes him into the next higher rank of lieutenant
general.

“His promotion is an insult to the victims of human rights
violations,” Gary Liberal, a nurse and one of the so-called Morong 43,
told Bulatlat.com in phone interview.

Liberal is one of the six of the Morong 43 who filed damage suit
against Segovia, former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and several
other officers of the military and police for violation of human rights..... MORE

As peasants and workers are being battered by incessant price hikes,
peasants are demanding for an increase in the government’s procurement
of rice and workers for a substantial wage increase.By MARYA SALAMATBulatlat.com

MANILA – “While the toil of workers brings wealth to the country
especially to the few rich, the workers who are supposed to receive
living wages are being forced to go hungry because of meager wages. It
is the Filipino farmers who produce the country’s food, but they
themselves are getting more and more deprived.”
These are the messages repeatedly aired by leaders of peasants and
workers who marched separately on Tuesday April 17 yet later held a
joint program at the foot of Mendiola Bridge (now Chino Roces) near
Malacañang.

The peasants led by Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP) marched
and started their program at Mendiola when the workers led by the
Kilusang Mayo Uno (KMU) arrived marching, too. The KMU members pushed
aside the steel barriers and barbed wire that flanked the monument of
Chino Roces, so they could march nearer the gates of the Mendiola Peace
Arch. The police, meanwhile, formed a barricade behind the gate, with
some policemen taunting the protesters and banging their shields with
their truncheons.

The workers asserted that they want to hold their program as near as
possible to the Malacañang Palace— the better, they say, to make
President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III listen to their demand for social
justice.
The peasants also pushed aside the steel barrier and barbed wire on
their side of Mendiola to join the workers near the Mendiola Peace Arch
gates.
Workers, peasants becoming poorer

“The Aquino government, acting on the dictates of IMF-World Bank, has
been removing subsidies to agriculture,” said Willy Marbella, peasant
leader from Bicol. The peasants group marched to Mendiola to demand
subsidies from the government, beginning with raising the government’s
buying price for palay (unhusked rice) to P20 ($0.47) per kilo so
peasants will not go bankrupt..... MORE

04/19/2012
Thus says the title of a famous and much appreciated song that was repeatedly sang and delightfully heard some years back.

The
truth is that the song remains relevant and meaningful, particularly in
these times, in the Philippines. The song is religious in nature but
also practical in application. It looks up to heaven, having earth well
in mind. It elevates to the divine what humans sadly experience and
suffer from. It asks for healing because something is unwell, something
hurts and begs for healing.

What are the pains that need healing? What is wrong that needs to be made right? Who caused the pain and did the wrong?

Sad
to say, the answer to all the questions is the same. Said pitiful and
detestable reality in the land is authored by the one and the same
being: Man..... MORE

04/19/2012
BAGUIO City — Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justice Jose Sabio, the
whistle-blower in a case in the alleged bribery in a case involving
the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has died of natural causes, the
Supreme Court (SC) announced yesterday.

He was 71.

Court
Administrator Midas Marquez said Sabio, a brother of former Presidential
Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Chairman Camilo Sabio, died after a
lingering illness in the latter’s home province of Cagayan de Oro.

Following
Sabio’s exposé of alleged attempts to bribe him in 2009, a Department
of Justice panel found probable cause to indict businessman-cum-lobbyist
Francis de Borja for corrupting public officials and violating
provision of the country’s gift-giving edict against government
employees and officials..... MORE

China
yesterday summoned a top Philippine diplomat and expressed concern over
the “harassment” of Chinese fishing boats in disputed waters in the
South China Sea, as a maritime standoff rumbled on.

The two
countries have traded barbs for more than a week over a territorial
dispute that centers on the disputed Scarborough Shoal called Huangyan
island in Chinese, and has increased tensions in the region.

On
Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin said Vice
Foreign Minister Fu Ying had summoned the charge d’affaires of the
Philippine Embassy on Sunday and Wednesday to lodge representations over
the row..... MORE

Speaking during the annual forum
for newsmen covering the judiciary beat, Marquez cautioned that the
Executive Department’s moves will undermine not only the judiciary but
the entire system of government grounded on law.

“Unfortunately,
today, the administration’s deliberate dismantling of the public
confidence that the court has so meticulously built over the decades has
emboldened private individuals to defy court rulings and render
meaningless the rule of law,” Marquez said..... MORE

Bayan
Muna Rep. Teddy Casino yesterday hinted that President Aquino and
Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Jose Almendras are conspiring with
favored friends in the private power sector to jack up prices in
Mindanao.

I have been wondering why Noynoy and Almendras are
forcing coal and diesel plants to be used in Mindanao when the
electricity costs are high when there are many alternatives and
different solutions to the crisis. Is it because this would benefit the
Aboitizes who for a long time have been close to Aquino and that they
were the former boss of Almendras? It looks like a Triple A conspiracy
to me, said Casino.

The Aboitizes own Therma Marine Inc. whose two
power barges are largely blamed for the power outages in Mindanao in
2010, when they entered into a contract with the National Grid Corp. of
the Philippines, making prices unaffordable to Mindanaos power
distributors..... MORE

04/19/2012
WASHINGTON — The Philippines leads the world in the number of people
who believe in God, while the elderly across all countries tend to be
the most religious, according to a US study out Wednesday.

Belief
in God tends to be strongest in the United States and Catholic countries
and lowest in Scandinavia and former Soviet states, according to the
survey carried out by the NORC research group at the University of
Chicago.

The study was based on data from 30 countries — nearly
all with Christian majorities — in which surveys about belief in God
have been taken since 1991..... MORE

The
famous Puerto Princesa Underground River (PPUR) in Palawan will be
officially installed as one of the world’s New 7 Wonders of Nature in a
ceremony to be held in Pasay City on Saturday.

Mayor Edward
Hagedorn, at a press briefing held at a Quezon City restaurant
yesterday, said the formal installation by the Swiss-based organization
called the New 7 Wonders of Nature Foundation headed by Dr. Bernard
Weber will further result in vibrant tourism in Palawan and in the
entire Philippines as well.

He said President Aquino will be the
guest of honor and speaker of the historic event that is expected to be
graced by members of the diplomatic community, key officials from the
six countries that made it to the New 7 Wonders of Nature, national
government and local government officials in the National Capital
Region..... MORE

Herrera-Dy said city and
municipal governments in the country have the right to recall or
withdraw business permits and licenses they have issued gasoline outlets
if found to have resorted to dishonest methods in conducting their
business.

At the same time, Herrera-Dy said LGUs also have the
responsibility to conduct regular inspections of gasoline stations
operating in their respective localities..... MORE